The Harrisburg Telegraph of June 17, 1936, credited the rise of Knock-Knock Mania to the selection of Col. The craze was especially potent in Pennsylvania. Swing orchestras wove knock-knock schtick into songs. And by the mid 1930s, knock-knock jokes were to be heard everywhere. Let us hope that soon I will be able to meet you on the street and ask if you know Gladys and you will say Gladys who and I will say Gladys Zellitsover."īut the mania only morphed into an even more popular form: the knock-knock joke. Such nifties were popular among the flappers, McEvoy noted, who would ask: "Have you ever heard of Hiawatha?" And you would reply: "Hiawatha who?" And the flapper would say: "Hiawatha a good girl. "Most of them travel in elipses of 20 years." The Arthurmometer-type joke, he wrote, had returned - as a new type of jest or a "nifty." "Jokes, like comets have definite orbits," McEvoy observed on May 26, 1922. Writing in the Oakland Tribune, Merely McEvoy recalled that around 1900, a jokester would walk up to someone and pop a question like: "Do you know Arthur?" And the unsuspecting listener would reply, "Arthur who?" And the jokester would say "Arthurmometer!" and run off laughing. But who told the first knock-knock joke?īefore there were knock-knock jokes - as we know them - there were "Do You Know" jokes. So that, for better or worse, was Douty's initiation. Mickey Mouse who? Mickey Mouse's underwear." The first joke that the 43-year-old Virginia comic remembers telling - at age 4 or 5 - was this: "Knock knock. When Melissa Douty - a stand-up comic who competed in the 2015 World Series of Comedy last week - was interviewed by a reporter in Roanoke, Va., recently, she said her career began with a knock-knock joke. Somehow - knock on wood - it has endured. In fact, in the heyday of the knock-knock's popularity, certain critics railed against it. With its repetitive set-up and wordplay punchline, the form has been invoked - and understood - by people of all ages and sensibilities.īut knock-knock jokes have not always been universally appreciated. The knock-knock joke has been a staple of American humor since the early 20th century. Joking like this used to be considered a sickness by some people.
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